From the Arab spring to the private lives of Hollywood stars, Twitter and other social networking sites seem to have become integral to the news agenda. But despite criticism that Twitter only amplifies the mundane, it is a very powerful sharing community where teachers can find a constant supply of articles, website links, lesson plans, interactive games, worksheets and a whole lot more.

In fact, the steady flow of resources that can arrive via Twitter could make searching on Google redundant. The danger is that Twitter could become overwhelming and, like me, you might find yourself putting limits on your use (I survive on a strict limit of 30 minutes a day).

Setting up an account is very easy and once you are signed up the first thing you need to do is search for people to follow. Click on the "Who to follow button" and search for terms such as ELT, Tesol, EFL, and ESL. You will find plenty of people to follow and you will probably recognise some names and organisations. Just click on the follow buttons.

As for suitable individuals to follow I would suggest @NikPeachey, @ozge, @TheConsultantsE and @Larryferlazzo. A recent favourite of mine has been @AnaCristinaPrts. That would be enough to start a constant flow of material coming to your Twitter account. If it starts to get too much use the "Search" button at the top of the window to filter your tweets so that you only view content around a particular topic. For example, if you only want to see tweets about #Tesol, then write that in the search bar and it will limit your tweets to just that topic.

Using the filter tool is a great way of finding materials you can use in class. For example if one day I need activities for teaching English for Academic Purposes, then I simply write #EAP in the search bar and it will show me only tweets around that topic.

You might find times when you just haven't got time to read something but you like the tweet and would like to read it later. Just click on the "Favourite" button just underneath each tweet. When you want to find the tweets you have marked as favourite, click on "Profile" then "Favourites". I tend to use this tool a lot; it allows me to store up all my favourite tweets and view them when I have time.

Of course don't forget to share your own comments or ideas as tweets or to retweet material that you enjoy reading. Once you begin to tweet and retweet material then people will start to follow you back. It is a good idea to add hashtags to your tweets as it helps people to filter and find your material more easily. So for example use #iPad if you have found an interesting article or app about iPads that you think others might like. Keep your tweets short – remember you have just 140 characters. If people retweet your material, it is a nice touch just to send them a quick "direct message" to thank them. The quickest way is to click on the "Reply" button below the tweet.

The question most new users ask me is about privacy. My advice is: don't send anything private on Twitter. Use it for work and sharing content and that way you will never have to worry. Don't be concerned if people "follow" you who you don't know. The whole idea of a community is that people link because of their interests, so once people see you are tweeting around topics they are interested in, they will quite likely follow you. Remember they only receive the things you tweet or retweet.

To find out more about the people who send you tweets simply click on their image and information appears on the right. You can unfollow or follow them and also send them a direct message by clicking on the envelope icon. You can see how many followers they have and view a list of their followers by clicking on the number.

If you start receiving tweets that have unsavoury content or are plain spam, then simply block those people. Just click on the icon of that person and look in the right hand column. Click on the tab of the small head with an arrow pointing down and then choose "Block". That will stop any more of their tweets reaching you. It doesn't happen that often but occasionally it does. Be selective about the people and the organisations you follow and you should be fine.

Used sensibly Twitter can provide teachers with a constant flow of material. People often ask me when I present at conferences how I know about so many great websites. Well I have just let the secret out of the bag. I get them from Twitter.

Russell Stannard is a principal teaching fellow at the University of Warwick in England, he also hosts the professional development site teachertrainingvideos.com. You can follow him on @russell1955 and Learning English on @LearnEnglishGW